The more you rest, the more tired you become. The study is Puetz, O’Connor & Dishman (2006), a University of Georgia meta-analysis of 70 randomized trials with nearly 7,000 people. Regular exercise beat fatigue medication for reducing tiredness. If you’re inactive and drained, moving a little is what helps.

The more you rest, the more tired you become. You know that stretch where you stay in for a few days, barely move and somehow you end up feeling more exhausted than you were busy. Even getting up for a cup of coffee starts to feel like effort. Your body feels heavier, your mind feels slower and you can't work out why because all you did was rest. Here's the paradox. That heaviness is not your body asking for more rest. It's your body reacting to the lack of movement. Researchers at the University of Georgia looked at 70 separate studies on fatigue. They found that sedentary people who started moving regularly felt less tired than people who were actually taking actual fatigue medication. Movement beat the drug, so when you feel that flat, drained, foggy heaviness settle in, the answer usually isn't more rest. It's a walk, it's fresh air, it's getting your body going even when every part of you wants to stay still. Rest recovers your body, what a movement recharges it.